Fatherhood
by phantomdare1
Summary: Prequel to Fullmetal Exorcist. Roy takes the responsibility to help Ed recover from his scars of torture, but Roy and the rest of the staff also have their own scars. They weren't meant to kill. Alchemists are human, too, aren't they? ParentalRoyEd -discontinued-


**Fatherhood – Chapter 01 – The White Canvas**

* * *

"Colonel Mustang," Scar began in a gruff voice. "Everyone is ready to go."

"What about us!" Ed asked, and Scar sighed.

"You better hurry, Edward. I prefer you pack now."

"B-But-"

"Calm down, Fullmetal," Roy stopped his apprentice from exploding. "Thank you, Scar. We'll meet at the front gate."

Scar nodded and turned on his heel before going away. Both Kanda and Lavi got up and left immediately, with no words left to say after listening to Ed's story. The office door was shut, and Ed looked back at Roy.

"Why didn't you tell them? It wasn't fifty years ago… it was seventeen…"

Roy got up from his desk and sat down next to Ed on the couch. The boy hated lies, especially when they were made to cover up big things. He had experienced one too many tragedies that were caused by lies, and he knew that he wished never find them again.

"They have their own horrors to deal with, Ed," Roy patted the blonde's head. "Knowing everything will hurt them. When they get older, I'd like to think that they'd learn at that time… but not now… I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else again…"

"Oh…" Ed looked down to the ground, and placed a hand on his chest. "I still remember it… and it hurts… a lot…"

Roy nodded and stared at the floor, still feeling the burning sensation in his hands.

_

* * *

A twelve year old was panting, his single lock of sleek brown hair hanging limply from his face. He was completely covered in burns, mostly at his arms. A circle with simple curved lines was etched into the ground, and the boy has letting his hand hover over it dangerously._

_ Another boy, the near same age, was standing shakily his left fingers outstretched, as if he were going to snap them. His black hair was soaked in sweat, and dark circles under his onyx eyes, which wavered at the sight of betrayal. Betrayal made people do horrible things to others, and these boys had to experience it first-hand for minds so young._

"_I thought you were… my friend… my best friend… Roy…" the burnt boy whimpered, a small sniff following in between his sobs._

_ Roy couldn't move his fingers. If he made a single move, he could fry the boy. Something fueled him to snap, but something else fueled him to put his hands away. The internal war was just too much…_

_ "I-I'm sorry… Isaac, but he told me to…" That was all Roy could really say…_

_ Isaac lost his weeping demeanor, and his eyes flashed with rage._

_ "Oh, so you're going to kill me? A fellow friend, and Alchemist? Why don't you kill Riza and Maes, too? They're complete failures to Project Zero!"_

_ "I've already told you this before, Isaac…" Roy growled. "Leave them out of this… I can't let anyone… make another Akuma…"_

_ "But… my family…" Isaac wrung his hands before him. "They're gone… someone blew up their house… Do you know why? Do you know who?"_

_ Roy said nothing in return, and Isaac continued._

_ "I can't forgive you, Roy! You killed my family!"_

_ "I… I…"_

_ "You son of a bitch! I won't let you live! I'll activate this circle, so we'll both die!"_

_ His instincts snapped to motion. He was going to live, not die! Roy snapped instantly, and the fire wildly grazed Isaac's cheek. In recoil, Roy staggered a few steps back. A totally unprepared explosion would wrack his body senseless…_

_ "I'll kill you!" Isaac screamed, and he slammed his hands on the etched circle. The stone chamber immediately began growing flowers of ice that spread across the floor and walls. Roy couldn't help but shudder at the sudden drop in temperature. Isaac took this opportunity to fling himself onto Roy, grabbing the poor boy's neck in the process._

_ Roy felt the wind being knocked out of his lungs as his back and head hit first on the floor. The arms that seized his windpipe refused to let go, yet they dug even further into his neck. A strangled gasp left his mouth, and he flailed his arms and legs about, snapping randomly, hoping that would hit somewhere. Isaac wept as he let one hand go and landed a fist on Roy's nose, and the white floor was blooming red._

_ "Isaac!" Roy gasped with the little air he received._

_ "I won't let go!" Isaac sobbed as he landed another punch in the same area of Roy's face. "You killed my mom! My dad! My sister! You killed them! You killed everyone's families! You're a monster! A monster! Basque and Riza and Maes and Scar are monsters, too!"_

_ "Stop…"_

_ "Die!-"_

_ BANG!_

_ The rampant boy fell to the floor, lifeless. Roy still held out his fingers in its snapping position as he was facing the ceilng, his eyes still dilated from the shock of nearly dying for the hundredth time._

_ "You're too soft, Mustang," A man sneered, his gun smoking. "You need not hesitate! These traitors are monsters. They hurt you and killed your dear aunt Christmas, too, to stop you from finding him… am I correct…?"_

_ "Stop…"_

_ "He killed them because he was a traitor… He wanted to become another Earl… do not forget that, Mustang…"_

_ "Stop…"_

_ "You must feel nothing… You are merely a tool…"_

_ "No…"_

_ "Kneel… before your superiors… Obey commands…"_

_ "No… stop… STOP!"_

_ Snap._

…

_ "You can't win, Mustang… You know you can't… and I do, too…"_

* * *

"Hurry! I want this boy in a separate ward! Now!"

"Yes, sir!"

"You! Over there! I want full diagnosis! I'll give you five hours to complete your report!"

"Y-Yes, sir!"

"You! I want you to check this boy's profile! I don't care if you have to hack CROW's database! Go! Go!"

"Aye, sir!"

The sound of screeching wheels of a stretcher rolling down the halls called attention to the ears of the man nurses. One of them fainted on site, and another felt the urge to vomit.

"The boy… he's…"

"What… How…"

Their shock was cleared when a tall man with dark black hair and dark eyes met them. His gold and black uniform called authority. His face was pained, but he meant business. He merely passed the two, and the nurses met a blonde woman with a pinned up hair that resembled a bird's tail. She wore a tan jacket and pants, quite unlike the man before. This time, she faced them with a stern look on her face, her hands hovering over a gun holster by her side.

"Get to work," She commanded them, and they squeaked before scampering to their daily duties. She picked up her pace to catch up with her superior, who was storming beside the moving bed on which the patient lay.

He didn't bother to look ahead, and he luckily didn't crash into anyone or anything. He was too focused on getting the child into intensive care. And time was running short… so short…

* * *

"General, Tiedoll would like to see the child."

Roy looked up at his Finder, who stood readily. "Please tell him and the other Generals they'll have a meeting. I'll stay behind to watch the boy."

"Yes, sir."

The blonde Finder left, leaving Roy in deep thought with the flooding amount of questions. A man in a white lab coat appeared, his face fixed in a scowl, probably from Roy barking at all the medics to take care of the boy immediately. The General looked up sharply, fumbling with the golden buttons of his Exorcist uniform.

"Sir… I have completed the report." Knox closed the ward door behind him. With a nod of approval, Knox flipped open the book in which he recorded the patients' conditions.

"His arm and leg have been amputated by unknown means… It doesn't seem human, however… malnutrition… bruises…. Everywhere… lacerations… must have been bound for a long time…"

Roy listened wistfully as Knox droned on and on about the boy's injuries. But the words that stood out most was the amputated limbs… by something they didn't know… It couldn't possibly be that… the forbidden… could it?

Roy looked at the sleeping patient from the open door. The boy was no more than ten, his blonde hair cropped and very unkempt. A majority of his body was heavily bandaged, including his face, which had several bruises when Roy had found him. His face was peaceful as if he were already gone from this world. Roy found it fortunate that he and other Generals had found the boy in the deep dungeons of Central rather than elsewhere. He had to thank his sharp instincts for that…

"Are you even listening, sir?"

"Yes, I am," Roy straightened. "It's that bad, isn't it…"

"I can't believe they have a boy in this condition… and these injuries over here look more than a year old… damn… what the hell did they do to him?"

With this, Knox turned around, grumbling about how children should not be in the Order, and other negative ideas. Roy took the chance to go inside the boy's room, and take the seat beside his bed. Another Finder entered the room, stopping right beside him.

"Roy, you're planning to take this to the higher-up, aren't you?" A man with brown hair and glasses glanced sideways at his friend, who nodded without delay. He too wore a tan uniform.

Roy laid back on his chair, cupping his face in his hands in frustration. "I thought that damn regime was already done. Isn't Cornelius dead already? Hughes?"

"Well, yeah, according to records… I thought you'd remember all of it… After all… you k-"

A clicking of boots alerted the two men, and they regained proper posture.

"General, Leverrier demands you be at the conference right now." Hawkeye, the blonde woman with her hair tied up, announced.

"Damnit," Roy swore. "At this time?"

"I apologize, sir," Riza nodded. As frustrated as she was with the Inspector's demands, she kept her cold expression. "I can ask a request for absence if you'd-"

"It's okay," Roy stood up sharply, his black hair hiding his eyes. "I'll go. And I have a thing or two to pick with him."

Riza closed her mouth and nodded, stepping aside for Roy to rush away from the injured boy. She quickly followed leaving Hughes to sit alongside the busy nurses and doctors, but the man noticed how sluggish the doctors were being as they stared at him blankly. They must have been terrified of Roy when the General stormed into the infirmary.

Glasses glinting, he angrily shot up from his seat. "Well, what are you waiting for? Tend to the boy at once! The Chief needs full report as soon as possible!"

* * *

"Did the kid make it?" Havoc asked his three other comrades, who shrugged. Fury nervously gripped his sleeves, staring outside the infirmary where Roy, Riza, and Hughes had already entered with the boy. Then Roy and Riza had left with angry expressions on their faces.

"Still, I'm hoping Roy won't start yelling at the doctors or Inspector Leverrier like the last time he heard about that girl he found at the Order. The girl's brother was the same."

"Both of them went ballistic, remember?" Havoc sighed as he fumbled his box of cigarettes. This was an infirmary. He wasn't supposed to smoke, but the urge kept tugging at his conscience whenever he wasn't happy.

A nurse passed walked up to them.

"Are you Jean Havoc?" She asked him.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"I have a note from Maes Hughes. He seems to have an assignment for you."

Havoc took the note, and scanned through it. His eyes flickered with interest as he turned on his heel, motioning the other three men to follow.

"Where are we going?" Falman asked.

"It's a research assignment." Havoc gritted his teeth. "I bet this won't be the best one."

* * *

After a day of chaotic conferences, Roy felt inclined to collapse on his desk to sleep for the night. The door opened and Maes Hughes walked in, but once he noticed that Roy was dozing off, he immediately began to leave.

"Wait, Hughes," Roy called out. "If you have something, just tell me now."

"But are you sure? You look like you might need-"

"Report, please." Roy interrupted with a brisk answer. He pinched his palm to stay awake.

"Well, the kid's good for now," Hughes began. "While you were at the conference, we were able to get something on him."

He showed Roy a folder compiling all the things they found in the last fifteen hours. He knew Roy would want to see it, he kept it, since Roy would be too sleepy to bother reading it properly, so he read it all aloud, in summary, of course.

"The boy's name is Edward Elric. He's just an ordinary boy who lived with his younger brother Alphonse Elric. Breda is currently off to Reesembool to inform his brother of his condition."

"Parents?"

Hughes looked up from the file. "Sorry, Roy?"

"I'm asking about his parents."

"He doesn't have any." Hughes flipped through the pages. "It says his mother passed away when that typhus plague hit Germany, and his father left them when they were really young. Tough life for a kid, huh…"

"Any more?"

"Yeah… they attempted to commit Human Transmutation. That's what the intel could sum up while they're investigating the Elric residence."

Roy paused. Wasn't Human Transmutation only supposed to be known within Central and some select members of the Order? "Describe it."

"Which one? Ours or CROW's" Hughes presented to him two packets of paper. Roy didn't bother to look, his head still facing the desk.

"Ours." CROW always did a crappy job of their reports when they gave him anything. Whatever happened to the respect of a General?

"Um… let's see…" More crisp pages fluttered. "A transmutation circle at the floor of the study… it had a pentagon inside it, with circles on each vertex… Here's a photo, if you'd like."

A photograph was slid to Roy's desk, and the man looked up briefly before taking the picture to look down again. He studied it for a few minutes before sliding it back to Hughes, who collected it promptly.

"That's a genuine human transmutation circle…" Roy commented. "I don't think it fully worked. And how do you call this boy normal?"

"Yeah, but that's not all," Hughes gravely sighed. "We took the liberty of investigating the dungeons… we found this same circle and something else… I don't think I can read the worded description for this…"

Another photo slipped under Roy's nose, and the General jumped out of his chair in fright. Then in realization.

"That… was… it's…"

"They forced him to truly bring back his mother, Roy…" Hughes choked on his words. "They did it… and that's what happened…"

"So in compensation…"

"Yeah…" Hughes nodded. "The boy lost his leg… they made him do it again when that 'thing' died, so he lost another limb: his arm. There were two of those things."

"But no one but the Alchemists were supposed to know that!"

"Somehow CROW or that Bradley's team got their hands on it… It was going to be their main choice of heresy trials. I found it in their documents."

"Yeah, but under the Generals' agreement, the CROWs won't be using such methods. Leverrier is denying he did anything to the boy. Bradley's all we can narrow down to, but Leverrier is still suspicious. One of them will have to speak the truth."

"I hope so. You know how those two do things in secret if you Generals don't approve it. They are the Church's intel and defense squads."

"Then that's easy. We make our intel stronger."

Hughes smiled at his friend's enthusiasm. He stared at his own right arm, where a small transmutation circle was peeking out from his dark long sleeve. He shook his head to forget it, but Mustang noticed it all.

"Are you still scared of that circle, Hughes?" He sat up calmly.

"No, not at all," Hughes sighed.

"At least Gracia knows about it. Besides, that circle can't be used anymore. You shouldn't have to worry about it. Funny thing, though. Riza, Havoc, and Scar did the same thing last week."

"We're all having a hard time getting past this," Hughes looked out the window again. "Even you are."

"Yeah... I suppose so…"

**A/N: Is this a prequel to Fullmetal Exorcist? Why, yes it is! Although I won't be updating this as much, since I'm still on Intangible Essence. There's going to be lots of ParentalRoyEd. For a first chapter, I have not much to say... Read and Review.**


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